


Visceral Reaction

by LittleSweetCheeks



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-18
Updated: 2016-01-22
Packaged: 2018-05-14 20:06:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 3,935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5756512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleSweetCheeks/pseuds/LittleSweetCheeks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is my first attempt at fanfiction.<br/>I am really bad a summeries, but I hope it is only a little off canon and not too far OOC.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own. But it would be really cool if I did, ha.

JJ was sitting in the quad during her lunch break looking over a file when a shadow fell over her. She looked up to see the newest member of the team.

“Hey, mind if I sit?”

“Not at all,” JJ shuffled her paperwork away.

“I didn’t mean to interrupt what you were doing.”

“Oh, no, I was waiting for a reason to put that away and give my brain a rest.” JJ chuckled. “I would much rather chat about…anything, but a casefile right now.”

Tara sat down and set out her meal before speaking, “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.” JJ propped her arms on the table. 

“Is it a part of being on the team that Hotch controls everything? Like, does he force everyone to give up that control? Or is it something he only does to the more submissive people?”

JJ tilted her head, “Control? Hotch doesn’t force anyone on the team to do anything. Though, sometimes he wishes he could. We are able to do what we do because everyone is equal. What made you think that?”

“Garcia. This situation with her. He pretty much told her she had to hide under his thumb at Quantico and it didn’t seem like she was really given the option of witness protection. I mean, I know it was brought up, but it didn’t seem presented as an actual option. And she just accepted his decision about it.”

The blond smiled and shook her head. “Hotch doesn’t trust witness protection. Garcia knows that, and why, she wouldn’t have gone unless it was the only viable option.” She got quiet a moment, “none of us would.” 

“Oh.” The taller agent watched the others around the quad. “Is this one of those things that the team just doesn’t talk about?”

JJ’s eyes snapped up to meet hers.

“Something Derek said.”

“Yeah. Most of us have worked together for years. Once you’re a part of this family though, you are never not a part. This family is forever and if you think you can get away, you clearly don’t know Garcia well.” She laughed. “Look. Hotch, he looks out for everyone. Not to be controlling, because he has no problem being told to butt out. But he worries. He fears that something could happen to someone and he wouldn’t be able to step in in time.” She finally took a swig from the bottle in her hand, “I can’t blame him for that. Just like we accept the unique magic that is Penelope and all that makes Spence, Spence. We also allow Hotch to have his fears. Rossi is the best at talking him down and believe me, nothing gets past him.”

“So if it was you in trouble?” Tara finished up her meal and began shuffling everything back into the bag.

“It has been me a time or two. And he will literally more heaven and earth. For Morgan, for Spencer, even for Rossi but Rossi seems to have a knack for avoiding major trouble.”

The two women stood to head inside.

“And what gives you the idea Penelope is submissive?”

“Huh? Oh. She just, compared to everyone else anyway,” Tara shrugged.

“She has no problem standing toe to toe with him, or anyone on the team, and defending herself. She just tends to be the person whose boundaries are most respected. I think she just overwhelms the guys into compliance.”

The both laughed.


	2. Chapter 2

He had his head down, reading over yet another file when someone knocked at his door. “Come in.” He sensed more than saw the person move to sit down, “Give me one second.” He finished his sentence and looked up. “Whatcha need?”

Tara smirked at him. “I had lunch with JJ today. She answered some questions I had, but…”

Rossi tilted his head to one side. Tara momentarily wondered exactly whose original behavior they all subconsciously copied. “But? It left you with even more questions? That she wouldn’t answer?”

“Yeah.”

“Well. You are more than welcome to ask me and I will answer what I can. I can’t make any promises though.” He settled back in his chair and folded his hands.

“I had asked her about Hotch’s need to control everyone.”

Rossi chuckled, “I’m guessing she looked at you like you grew a second head?”

“Pretty much. She said he had fears, and that everyone just accepted that he needed to feel in control and that it wasn’t odd at all that Garcia didn’t go into witness protection.”

Rossi nodded, “Oh,” he replied softly. “In your research, have you ever come across a killer called the Reaper?”

“The Boston Reaper? Sure, but parts of the file are classified. There’s a lot of material from before he went dormant but then everything after he resurfaced until his death, the facts are there but odd details are blanked out. It says the FBI was after him, but there’s no way to track down specific agents who were part of that. There are even some victim names missing. I don’t think I’ve ever come across a file like that.”

“Did it make mention of a victim that had been in witness protection?”

Tara thought for a minute, “Yes. It just said a woman and a minor child were moved, but tracked down by the Reaper eventually. It gave an address where the Reaper killed the woman, but when I looked up the address, the sales history only showed it owned by some LLC that I couldn’t trace to an owner and only ever owned that one house. Bought it, owned it for a number of years, and then sold it.”

“And the Reaper’s death?”

“The ME report lists blunt force trauma to the head and neck. Classic overkill. The official criminal file says suicide by cop.”

Rossi smirked, “I wasn’t aware it said that. Doesn’t surprise me, but it this instance, somewhere between the two is closer to the truth.”

“So a cop killed him? He tried to kill a cop?”

“Well, he tried to kill a Fed.” Rossi stood and went to shut the door. “This story starts a bit before that. It was a BAU case.”

Tara’s eyes went wide. “He tried to kill one of the team?”

“You need to understand, once we have this conversation, you can never mention it anywhere, to anyone, ever.” Rossi made his way back to his seat, “He blitzed Hotch after a horrible case. Well, horrible doesn’t describe it. But anyway. He also indicated that he had his sights on Hotch’s ex-wife and son.”

“So they….oh. Oh. Oh my god.”

He let her process quietly. 

“So the unnamed woman was?”

Rossi nodded.

“But the Reaper’s dea…oh.”

He waited until she brought her eyes up to meet his. “PTSD is a long battle. It rears its ugly head sometimes in the strangest of ways. It is the kind of thing where the sufferer needs to be surrounded by people willing to be supportive. Sometimes the smallest thing helps someone feel in control and keeps them from breaking down.”

“Like agreeing to be locked up in a federal building for the foreseeable future?”

“Yeah, like that.” They both sat in quiet contemplation until another knock sounded at the door, “Come in.”

Garcia popped her head into his office, “I was wondering if you wanted to stay for dinner and a rematch? Oh, didn’t realized you had company.” She grinned at Tara. “You are welcome to join us, round out the numbers and all.” She tilted her head as she offered.

Rossi raised an eyebrow, “Who else is staying?”

“Hotch. He is getting the food set up.”

The two agents rose. “You left him in your space alone?”

Garcia turned to him, “He knows better that to touch a thing. He better know better. I hope he knows better.” She scurried back down the hall.

He chuckled, “Will you join us? Dinner and pretzel poker. Garcia has zero poker face.”

Tara laughed. “I bet.”


	3. Chapter 3

Tara had watched the interactions as they ate and move on to playing cards. Rossi and Garcia openly alternated between flirting and heckling each other. Rossi had been right, it was easy to read the blonde like a book. His own tells were much more subtle, he probably wasn’t even aware of them. Hotch seemed to have no tells, but the Garcia caught her eye and slowly followed her gaze back to him. The action was so vague that at first she didn’t understand. Hotch had put his cards in his left hand. Sure, she knew he was a leftie, but everyone switched around as they played. Then he lost that round.

So she watched again and sometime later, he again shifted them to the left. Then he lost. Tara was floored. There had to be no way mister lead profiler wasn’t aware of his own tell. She would have to ask Garcia about this later.

After the next game Garcia stood and excused herself to the restroom. As she helped Rossi clean up their plates while Hotch set up their final game of the night, she watched her boss out of the corner of her eye. He kept glancing out the open doorway.

“She’s only down the hall, no need to panic.”

Tara turned when Rossi spoke.

Hotch gave the older man a mild glare. “I wasn’t panicking.”

Rossi shook his head, “Okay. I know you’re worried about how this is all affecting her. She’s strong. She’ll stick it out as long as we are all there for her. Like you have been when we are in town.”

Hotch’s glare became a little less mild.

Rossi chuckled, “Breakfast almost daily? At least half of dinners. Remember, I know all Aaron.”

“I’m doing what any friend would do.” Hotch shook his head.

“Oh, I know. Derek brings her breakfast the other mornings, JJ and Reid take care of a lot of lunches.” 

Tara sensed a shift in the room. “I think I’ll head that way for myself anyway.” And she quickly exited the room. She knew Rossi liked to tease, and he really enjoyed being the only one with free reign to tease Hotch, but something in the way Hotch’s body language changed made her wonder. She entered the bathroom and Garcia was washing her hands.

“The boys run you off?”

Tara laughed. “Something like that. Hey, how did you discover that tell?”

“Oh. Lefties notice the habits of other lefties. How dominant, how ambidextrous. He shoots with his right, probably has to do with his SWAT days. Harder to grab a gun and go if you always need it left handed. Aside from that he is painfully left handed. To play poker he holds them with his right and pulls cards to play with his left. Once he knows he has a bad hand, he shifts them left.”

“Does everyone know this?”

“Yes.”

“I know this is my first time visiting with you casually, how are you holding up not being able to go outside? Not being able to go home? See family?”

“This team is my family. But the home and outside stuff, it sucks. I try not to let it show, but, I can’t wait for this to be over.”

They started down the hall. “I have a really strange question.”

“Shoot.”

“Does Hotch have a type?”

Garcia stopped, “Like, a date type?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh boy does he ever. Blonde hair, blue eyes, feisty, alpha personality. That was his late wife, and this Brit he had a thing of some undisclosed nature with, and a woman I know he had a date with once. Now, he did date for a few years a woman what was all but the blonde, but otherwise, he very much has a type. A long time age I would have pegged JJ as his type. They became good friends bonding over parenthood. Why? You got a thing for him? Cause let me say, that man plays close to the vest and I don’t think he ever makes the first move.”

“Oh, no. No interest here. I heard Rossi teasing him earlier and it made me wonder what his type was. That’s all.” They reentered Garcia’s room and finished their game.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The card thing. I have a relative that does this. No one has told him and he has never noticed.


	4. Chapter 4

They had just finished loading the unsub into the truck. Morgan was with Reid and JJ and Rossi were with the bomb squad. Tara took in the buzz of activity around her. The case was over. Everyone was happy for that. She headed to their SUV and opened the back as the others headed her way. It was time to go home.

The five of them stepped off the elevator on the sixth floor as a whirlwind that they could only assume was Penelope Garcia dashed out of her office and to the stairwell. Fleeing some unknown entity. All five heads turned as one and watched the stairwell door slam shut.

Movement from the direction they came drew their attention to where Hotch was standing in her office doorway. “Did Garcia leave?”

Morgan recovered first, “Yeah. Is she that excited to go home?”

“Well. She’s a very passionate person. And relief over something like this makes people react in unexpected ways.” He turned and headed to his office swiftly.

“What?” Morgan looked confused.

Rossi watched his friend go and then shook his head, “I think you need to call her and invite her over. She can hang out with you and Savannah. Maybe kick back a few drinks and celebrate. I don’t think he’d object to her taking a little time away from this place.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short and sweet, but there wasn't a better place to cut it off.


	5. Chapter 5

Morgan followed Garcia and Savannah back into the house after Reid left. “So, why are we drinking the hard stuff?”

Savannah laughed, “She told me that she wasn’t free from hiding thirty seconds and did something completely dumb.”

Garcia shook her head frantically, “I just know it. I’m done. No more FBI for me. All my freedom and everything and I screw it up.”

Morgan laughed at her antics, “Baby Girl, breaking down in relief over all this being over, that’s totally normal. If fact, we would probably be more worried if you didn’t seem to be affected at all. Let me guess, you burst into tears and someone saw you with make-up everywhere?” He teased.

“No I! Well, there was crying, but it was worse!” She grabbed a pillow and hugged it to herself as she flopped onto the couch. She buried her face into it, “We heard the takedown, heard it was all over. Hotch asked me if I was ready to go home and all I felt was relief and all these emotions started bubbling up at once and I couldn’t decide if I wanted to laugh or cry or run or scream or….” She paused for breath, “Then I still couldn’t process it really being over and I guess while I was thinking he had helped me up from my seat because the next thing I was facing him and it was still too much.”

Savannah’s jaw dropped, “Oh girl.”

Morgan looked between the two women. “What?” When neither woman answered, he asked, “What Baby Girl?”

Garcia mumbled something into the pillow.

“I really think it’s not a big deal.” Savannah put an arm around her shoulders. 

Morgan still looked at them confused. “I didn’t catch that.”

Garcia lifted her head a bit and cleared her throat. “I kissed Hotch.”

“You’ve done that before.”

“No, Morgan. I’ve given him a peck on the cheek before. And you’re right, he just brushed it off. That’s…that’s not what happened.”

He waited for her to continue, when she didn’t, he nudged her knee with his. “Well?”

“I was standing in front of him. All these things were going through me. I just grabbed him and kissed him and at first he stood there all surprised and some part of me expected him to push me away and tell me I was being unprofessional. Then for a second he relaxed and his hands were on my shoulders and it was so fast and suddenly it dawned on me just who I was standing there making out with and I panicked and took off.”

“That’s why you were running when we got back?”

“Yes.” She sighed, sounding more like a questions than a statement.

“Well. I doubt he is going to fire you. Or report you even. In fact, I would guess he won’t treat you any different unless for some reason you brought it up. So just relax and put it out of your mind. You have some time off now, go and have a little fun.”

“I can’t.”

“You can’t go relax and have fun?”

“Not that, I can’t put it out of my mind.”

“That bad?” Savannah asked.

“No. After I left I couldn’t help but think if that is how that man kisses when he is practically assaulted by a subordinate without warning, then what the heck kind of crazy was his ex to split from him. Or Beth to move away.”  
Savannah snorted, “Have you always had a thing for your boss?”

“No! Not to mention he very much has a type. No, I need fun and happiness in my life, not stern silence.”

“Baby Girl,” Morgan spoke, “His type is younger blondes with strong personalities.”

“Sound like you.” Savannah added.

“I hate you both. I just want to say that.”

Morgan laughed. “And the whole dang department knows he has a soft spot for you.”

“Yeah, a professional one.” Garcia shook her head. She leaned back in the couch. “I just want to go to sleep and forget it happened. Maybe he will really never bring it up again.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before the episode Entropy, I said to my hubby I bet she either bursts into tears or turns and kisses whoever she is with at that moment. Afterward I started playing with 'what if'.


	6. Chapter 6

Hotch could have practically counted down the minutes before Rossi appeared in his office doorway. “Yes, Dave?”

Rossi sauntered in and took a seat in a chair, looking like a king on a throne. A rather smug king at that. “So… What was that little display earlier by our now free analyst? Just how overwhelmed was she by the prospect of returned freedom?”

Hotch tried to out-stare his friend before sighing and setting his pen down. “I asked her if she was ready to go home. She looked upset, dazed, I took her arm and helped her stand figuring a bit of fresh air would probably help. She stood there frozen a second and then just grabbed me and kissed me.”

Rossi waited a moment, “And then? You pushed her away and acted totally disgusted and horrified that she would do such a thing?

“No! Why would I do that? I…”

Dave smirked.

“I hate you.”

“Ah, I know you don’t mean that. So. Did you kiss her back? Was it nice? Was it something worth repeating?”

“I’m her superior.”

“Not actually. Officially she is part of the tech department, not the BAU. It is a tiny line, but it’s there.”

Hotch stayed silent a minute, “Yes, it was nice. Yes, I eventually came to my senses and kissed her back, but as soon as I did she freaked and took off.”

“So what I’m hearing is she kissed you, you kissed her back, you liked it, you have no decent reason not to pursue it and she took off running. Guess you need to start pursuing then, don’t you?”

“You left out the part where I hate you.” Hotch attempted to level his friend with a glare.

Rossi stood, ignoring the glare. “She is staying at Morgan and Savannah’s. He said the girls were drinking so she will be there all night.” Then he left the room.

Hotch glanced at his phone and decided it wasn’t really all that late.


	7. Chapter 7

Morgan pulled his front door open and chuckled.

“Is, uh, is Garcia still here? Dave had said, he said that she was here.”

“Yeah, man, she’s in the back with Savannah. I’m severely outnumbered.” He let his boss in and shut the door.

“Did she, uh, she said something?”

“Yeah. We finally got it out of her. Not sure how she’ll react to you showing up here though.”

Hotch followed him down the hall to the family room.

“Hey, ladies, our numbers seem to have rounded out.”

Both women turned and peered over the back of the sofa. One pair of eyes grew impossibly wide and disappeared out of view, the other pair crinkled in amusement.

Hotch shifted his weight to one foot and then the other, “Penelope. Could I, uh, could I just talk to you a minute? And then I’ll go. I know this is your time and you shouldn’t have to worry about me cramping your plans.”

After a moment she stood and faced him.

Morgan spoke up, “You guys can go talk in the kitchen. The pocket doors pull closed for privacy.”

Both nodded and Garcia followed Hotch down the hall and waited until the pocket doors were pulled shut.

“Listen, Hotch, I am so sorry about earlier. I really didn’t mean to cause any awkwardness and I swear I won’t ever let it happen again. I can switch to another team if you want. Maggie is really good and she would be a good fit and I could request the switch and I don’t have to really put a reason. After all these years I don’t think they’ll really question me.” She stopped when he raised his hand to quiet her.

“Please. Just, that’s not why I came here Penelope.”

She didn’t dare move a muscle, she had never seen him look unsure of himself before.

“Yes, you took me by surprise. No one can predict how they will respond to a situation that emotional. All sorts of reactions are totally normal.” He sat on a barstool by the island. “I don’t want you to switch departments. I know technically you work for the tech department, but I don’t want them to reassign you.”

“You won’t say anything?”

“Well, I was hoping we could get to a point where I could say something.”

She eyed him curiously.

“If you are open to the idea, I would like to try it again. This time without the blitz attack part and the awkward statue imitation ideally.”

“You want to… You want to try kissing again? With me?”

“I think I would like it if you would at least think about it?”

She took a couple steps toward him until she was within arm’s reach. “Are you sure?”

“Yes,” he signed softly.

She took the final step to him and placed her hands on his shoulders as he put his on her waist. She only hesitated a moment before leaning in and meeting his lips with her own. It was soft and sweet and oh so much better than she could have imagined. Finally when they were both out of breath, they parted for air. 

Hotch’s eyes glanced at something just past her shoulder. “Are you interested in making that a more regular thing? With all the bells and whistles that would come with it?”

“Like dating?”

He gave her a soft smile.

“I think I would love that. What will we tell the others?”

“I think they are already finding out.”

She tilted her head in confusion and he motioned behind her with his eyes. She turned and look over her shoulder to see Morgan standing at the glass doors smiling at them. The agent slid one door open, “We’re headed to bed, the guest room is set up downstairs. Glad you are safe and sound Baby Girl.” With that he slid the doors back shut and disappeared from view.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to end it still sweet.

**Author's Note:**

> No Beta. Constructive criticism always helpful.  
> There may be more notes for other chapters. I don't plan on this getting smutty anywhere. I have most of it done already.


End file.
